Columns

I always love the calm after the holidays. Spending quality time with family, kids playing with their presents and a new year, which brings new opportunities, is officially underway. For state lawmakers, this time of year is spent preparing for the upcoming legislative session, and I look forward to all the work we can accomplish to benefit families in southwest Indiana.

The News just finished recapping the major stories of 2014 and while it’s still the first week of the new year, there’s no doubt the coming 12 months will be filled with news. From upcoming city elections and downtown redevelopment to a new hospital on the cusp of completion, we have a lot of report on in 2015.

Recent economic news has been broadly reassuring. Retail sales are strong, November saw the best job gains in three years, the federal deficit is shrinking, the stock market is robust, and the Fed is expressing enough faith in the economy that an interest rate bump next year is considered a certainty.

Yet the public remains unconvinced. This is partly because perceptions haven’t caught up to reality. For many middle- and lower-class families, economic circumstances have not changed very much.

Are you ready to celebrate New Year’s Eve? Look no further than downtown Tell City and the third annual Silvesternacht.

This year’s New Year’s Eve celebration offers something for everyone in the family. Sponsored by the Perry County Quality of Life Committee, Silvesternacht has become a community celebration of New Year’s Eve. A list of activities appears in this edition.

Around this time of the year, the “War on Christmas” and the “War on the War on Christmas” once again enter the public discourse, with each side claiming support from assorted statistics and anecdotes.

Though there are certainly some who inexcusably exaggerate threats to public religious expression and others who claim there is no hostility to Christianity, we must ask the obvious: If there is no hostility to public religious expression, what has prompted fears that Christmas is being stamped out?

I don’t mind a gloomy day here or there. I actually find them somewhat restorative. Too many in a row, though, can be sort of depressing. So, when the winter sky moves in, I search out the plants in the landscape that have color.

We all say we want winter interest but sometimes we forget about it once spring rolls around and we get excited about a new season.